Our Programs

Girls’ Rights

VISION

Girls worldwide need the skills, choices, and authority to fully realize their human potential. Ending the all-too-common practice of early and child marriage will be a vital step in unlocking that potential and transforming how families, communities, and governments value girls.

Overview

Our Girls’ Rights work is focused in South Asia, a region where child marriage is particularly common. Our strategy rests on a belief that cultural change has to come from communities themselves, and cannot be legislated, mandated, or internationally driven. That said, we know that community-level change can be given tremendous momentum by larger environmental forces. That’s why we aim to elevate the voices of the Global South in this debate and broadcast what we, and others, are learning about effective practice as quickly and loudly as possible.

Goals

Accelerate Attitude and Behavior Change at the Community Level

Programming at the community level is the “workhorse” of our strategy. To that end, we seek attitudinal and behavioral change in the communities we serve. And we promote the sharing of lessons and best practices regarding what works and what does not.

Increase Global Awareness of the Problem

Because global awareness of child marriage is still relatively low, we leverage learning across the early- and child-marriage community of practitioners; reframe and rethink the way cultures view and value girls; use media and direct communications to highlight the negative impact of early marriage on the lives of girls and their families; and promote effective advocacy efforts among groups engaging policy makers in the US and around the globe.

Grants

The effectiveness of our Girls’ Rights program is integrally tied to the organizations with which we work. Here are a few of our trusted partners and allies.